Monday, July 28, 2014

Workers led by the militant Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), the fighting
union Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) and the labor coalition
Nagkaisa joined the counter-SONA rally this afternoon. The workers contingent
merged with the mobilization of groups Freedom from Debt Coalition and Kontra
Pork that marched along Commonwealth
Ave. from Tandang Sora at 1:00 p.m. to the
Batasang Pambansa. PM chapters in Cebu, Bacolod,
Davao and GeneralSantosCity held similar actions
today.

PM slammed government policies that exacerbated social inequality
amidst economic growth. “PNoy’s inclusive growth is rhetoric without results,
just like ‘daang matuwid’ that has been exposed as a myth by the persistence of
pork barrel and the controversial DAP,” asserted Wilson Fortaleza, PM spokesperson.

As proof of growing inequality, Wilson Fortaleza pointed to
the undiminished number of jobless Filipinos in contrast to the inflation in wealth
of the rich under the five years of the Aquino administration. “In January 2010,
unemployment and underemployment rates were 7.3% and 19.7% respectively and
they basically remained unchanged at 7.5% and 19.5% in January of this year.
Meanwhile the wealth of Henry Sy, the richest Filipino, ballooned from USD5
billion in 2010, when Aquino came in, to USD11.4 billion this year according to
Forbes,” he elaborated.

“How can there be inclusive growth when PNoy allows
contractualization to run rampant and the prices of basic commodities and
services like rice and electricity to rise unregulated?,” Fortaleza argued.

PM also called for a citizen’s audit of the DAP to investigate
any anomalies and patronage in the disbursement of the billions in people’s
money and workers taxes.

PM members brought makeshift cutouts of the number “5” to
symbolize inaction on worker demands for the
last five years. The raised by the group rallyists include: “Ika 5 taong SONA
ni PNoy: Busabos pa rin ang Boss!” and “Sa 5 SONA ni PNoy: Walang naituwid na patakaran, Walang naitawid mula
sa kahirapan!”

Friday, July 4, 2014

The labor group Partido ng
Manggagawa (PM) today added its voice to the mounting call to have the
Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) subjected to a special audit after the
Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.

PM said Malacañang’s defense that
there was nothing wrong in it since it was done in good faith is flatly
self-serving as DAP’s worth needs to be proven beyond the realm of motives or
intentions.

Likewise the claim that DAP
boasted our economic growth is even more fallacious.

“We leave the legal issues to
lawyers, the moral intentions to priests, and the political flavor of it, for a
while, to rival politicians. Our main and immediate interest here is to
know whether DAP money had gone in the same manner PDAF had been squandered,”
stated PM chairperson Renato Magtubo.

Magtubo said the political context
when DAP was concocted and eventually released has overly been discussed. “What
we want to know now is whether a DAP released to a lawmaker’s left hand is
better spent than a PDAF released to his/her right hand.”

The former partylist
representative said a special audit for used and unused DAP funds may either
clear many issues or uncover the same pattern of fraud committed under PDAF. Or
may be worse.

“Assuming the crime was repeated,
the political discussion should therefore lead to a conclusion that the whole
system is terribly wrong,” said Magtubo.

The group believes that funds
released under DAP and received by the same hands that made PDAF their personal
piggy banks are tainted with corruption. Thus the need for a special audit,
perhaps deeper and wider than the audit made on PDAF.

At the height of the pork barrel
scam PM had pushed for, as part of reforms in the budget system, the concept of
a universal social protection fund with a clearly defined social purpose yet
completely isolated from the hands of corrupt politicians.

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Our Vision

Our dream is a world that gives due importance to the role of the working class and respects the dignity of labor. A social order where the working men and women of the world live together in peace, harmony and progress.Our aspirations lie in the emancipation of labor. A government that is truly of the workers, by the workers and for the workers.

Our hopes rest in a future where social progress thrives not for the benefit of a few people but for the development and richness of the entire humankind. A society that is free from the chains of wage slavery and where oppression does not exist.

Our Mission

Forge the unity of the workers into an independent working class party to organize them as a potent political force in social transformation towards the advancement and protection of labor from the scourge of globalization, establishment of a genuine workers’ government and the emancipation of the working class from capitalist exploitation and wage slavery.

Workers Unite!

The working class is the most important class in society. But, labor will only be a force to reckon with at a time when labor assumes the responsibility of leading the struggle to a decent living - free from exploitation of the propertied elite.

The time has come to rally every underprivileged sector of the society, to take the bull by the head and confront the issues of today. The working class must take an active role in every political exercise presented. The backbone of the independent party must be comprised of the working class with the other marginalized sectors in solidarity.

We must organize politically.

This is our own challenge and we must vow not to shirk from it.

Our future is in our hands, in our unity, in our struggle, in our party.